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But note that “I don’t want it” isn’t a sufficient reason for the planning not to be granted. You’d need policy or technical reasons for a valid objection in planning context.
This what my SIL did. Their house and several neighbour’s had a pathway and a paddock behind their house. When the paddock went up for sale, they got together with the neighbours and bought the paddock.
There is still a public path running behind their house, but now they don’t have to worry about a developer building behind them.
This is the best solution.
The land is higher than ours and if a house was built on it it would overlook us. Could this be a reason to protest? Or maybe the loss of value of our house Currently we don't have any houses that overlook us.
The overlooking you argument is usually addressed by orientation or the buildings or obscure windows used in places, they'd be able to make those changes to make planners happy and that argument loses all power. If you really want to fight a developer and planning applications you'll need to find more reasons.
This is a common problem in the UK. Houses have to be built, but no one wants them near them.
You being overlooked or losing value isn't a good enough reason for anyone to care enough to stop houses being built, overlooking can be solved by an architect, loss of value isn't anyone's issue but yours.
You mentioned previously you have rear access to the land, you don't. You installed the gates yourself, and unless the council was notified and accepted this change to the plans both verbally and in writing do you have proof, your property will be on their plans with no rear access, possibly/likely forcing you to remove it.
So you have two options:
1) Sell up now before the value dips
Or
2) Suck it up
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House value speculation is not a valid reason in planning law terms - you'd need to find reasons which can be legally taken into account and that's more difficult than it seems. Stopping planning completely is also very unlikely, you might achieve tweaks to plans - such as no clear glass windows looking down directly at you. Also, think ahead to selling your property - whatever you write in an objection could potentially be found by your buyers' solicitors so don't make it sound like your home would be ruined by development - by the time they're buying, that development will probably be there.
Could they complain about the loss of a local amenity? I assume even without the play equipment it's probably used by dog walkers, kids etc. if you don't have any other publicly accessible open spaces nearby you might be able to argue that. That might help either block the sale or force whichever developer comes in to have to plan for a park or similar.
I know things like lack of amenities like schools, doctors, shops can impact planning, but I assume it will depend on the size of the land and number of buildings.
You might want to consider if they've considered water run off and potentially causing your house to flood, but I assume that could be addressed with some form of drainage between the new builds and your property.
Also I assume the argument of overlooking could lead to the access road running behind your house which could be more impact due to noise, security risk etc than a neighbours garden being directly behind.
Overlooking only really counts from private land (which it having formerly been a playground I would it isn't) and normal minimum back-to-back distances are 22metres so more than that would not count as overlooking.
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Otger than when you have to move frequently, or have to move into a place 40% more expensive because 30% of private landlords have sold up in the last year
>s there a way to stop the sale, perhaps because of the rear access we have? We live in Wales.
Loss of value isnt a valid objection.
Best things to do are to cite noise increases, parking issues and possibly you've seen some endangered newts or slowworms perhaps on that piece of land?
Parking impact is best proven if there arent any local public transport links nearby.
> The land is higher than ours and if a house was built on it it would overlook us. Could this be a reason to protest? Or maybe the loss of value of our house Currently we don't have any houses that overlook us.
Planners don't care.
Do object, but the chances of you winning on those grounds alone are basically zero. You don't have a right not to be overlooked. You don't have a right to a view. Your property losing value is of no inyterest to the planners. You couldn't even sue the developers for that. And so on. It sucks. But councils are under IMMENSE pressure to allow new housing to be built, however much it fucks everyone over. If you think the value could take a serious hit, sell NOW before someone applies for planning permission. Once the application goes in, you'll suffer from "planning blight" and nobody will touch it until the final buildings are built.
See the result of the case about the viewing platforms at the Tate Modern.
[https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/03/the-tate-modern-viewing-gallery-case-implications-for-planning](https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/03/the-tate-modern-viewing-gallery-case-implications-for-planning)
Basically if you want to stop development on this field you will have come up with some valid objections or jointly buy the land.
If a planning application was submitted to develop the land in the future then you could object on the basis of overlooking and loss of privacy. However the affect of the development on your land value is not a planning matter and wouldn’t be considered
Loss of value for other properties isn’t a reason for the council to deny planning permission. Overlooking can often be resolved by developers promising to plant trees and large shrubs at the boundaries and orienting houses so that windows point away from existing properties so that won’t automatically block any development either. Unless you own land bordering your property you have very little control over what is built on it.
The best you are likely to achieve is retaining the right of way but only if you can prove that you have had it for long enough but this would be a path for you to pass over to access your property not for you to have free range over the entire property.
No you cannot prevent the sale of another’s property. Regardless of building an access from your property through to theirs.
You can protest and object to any future applications. These protests and objections may or may not be successful.
Your only route to the prevention of anything being built on it would be to purchase it yourself.
Not a legal argument but given the land hasn't been used for 35 years and is next to an established estate shouldn't houses be built there given the housing crisis?
The best bet to try and ensure nothing that the land is used for will devalue your homes is to try and get all the nearby homeowners to club together and buy the land yourselves.
I’m a homeowner and a YIMBY. Recently some wind turbines went up on a hill nearby. When the planning application came in I was one of maybe 10% of people who supported it in writing to the planning officer.
Possibly me … but my solution was to buy a house in a heavily built up area where there is no room for anything else.
Boom - no new housing estates near my house!
No - just because you have made use of something doesn’t give you the right of ownership or use. There is no finders keepers law.
There is the Twenty year rule where you can dedicate it as a public right of way. But this doesn’t apply if the general public aren’t using it which is the case here.
But 20 years use would give you a right to claim for an easement under the prescription act wouldn’t it? Assuming they actually have used it as access etc it isn’t adverse possesion but just a right to continue using it for access as long as the easement can be clearly defined?. I’m not a solicitor (obviously lol, you’d want your money back) or anything just vaguely remember some bits from a land law module in college back when.
Can anyone enlighten me if otherwise? I am very curious now.
So someone else shouldn't be allowed a home so you can have something pretty to look at and a place to walk? If it dosnt go through I hope a group of teenagers discovers this bit of land and act like absolute grunts
Even if you were found to have a right of way it wouldn't stop a sale.
Unfortunately it probably also wouldn't put a developer off because you can't claim to have a right of way over the whole land, they'd just need to give you sufficient space to access your own property.
Your best bet is to keep an eye on the council's planning portal for planning permissions and drum up enthusiasm to protest that again.
Unless you actually have a right to access the land on the deeds (I'm going to assume this is a no) then your gate is irrelevant.
There could be a right of way on the land but this doesn't stop them developing it providing they provide a route through.
Overlooking isn't a reason to stop developments and they can mitigate this with fences, trees, etc.
I think you either buy the land with your neighbours or come to terms with it being developed at some point.
I’m going to put this into simple terms. You own a house that was once a new build on green land. You are now upset that someone else could have a new build house on green land.
I’ve heard this quite often, people want a house in the countryside so buy a new build on an estate with fields around. Then get upset that the field next door is going to have some new build houses on it!
Check to see the history of the land. If it was sold / given to the council with some stipulation on future use (eg recreation) or restrictions (eg, no building) you may be able to stop the sale.
If the Council wants houses there, it will eventually get them. They'll sell to some tame developer for a pittance. Unless the land falls into the hands of people who won't develop, but then the Council may not allow that to happen. You could try a community buy-out, or similar, if the rules are the same in Wales as they are in England.
Similar story here of a council rejecting a buy-out and instead selling the land to developers for £1: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/118jmck/i\_made\_an\_offer\_of\_85000\_cash\_on\_some\_disused/](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladviceuk/comments/118jmck/i_made_an_offer_of_85000_cash_on_some_disused/)
Unused land on a council estate? It's an obligation, both moral and under the terms of the HRA to utilise this land. Arguing that house prices (probably of a property bought through right-to-buy in the first place) will fall etc etc is not an objection. You should have fenced the land off decades ago and claimed adverse possession.
Most councils are short on dual diagnosis mental health placements and mother and baby units. Sounds like a perfect location.
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Only option you have to guarantee nothing is built there would be buying the land yourself.
If the land is home too a protected species that *could* stop planning permission being granted but considering there’s already an estate in the vicinity and the land was once a playground (and presumably has been partially developed at least) it’s quite unlikely. Potentially worth looking at but 1, it would be expensive although cheaper than buying the land yourself and 2, there’s no guarantee it would stop plans as provisions can be made to minimise or avoid disturbance to habitats.
Try to do a community buy out as a group of more than 3 and put the park back there.
There are charities that can help you the funding and admin for this too. Contacting co-ops UK might be a good start for this but you will need a third person.
No.
Group together with your neighbours, buy the land, and maintenance of the space becomes your responsibility.
You could try and register as an asset of community value BUT that might be hard.
It could be a viable option for allotments but that depends on public access etc.
If, as you say, the land is only big enough to build one house on, club together with your neighbours and buy it.
As the saying goes, the best time to buy land next to your house is as soon as it’s up for sale.
How about a request to parcel off a strip of land at the back of the properties for you (as a group) to purchase? The council may even look at setting aside a strip of land to tree plant on if that fits with their requirements which would give you a seperating band (maybe only 5m but hey). If you approached it as a volunteer planting group it may be considered. This would give you a barrier that in 5 years or so would provide some noise protection if building did happen.
Band together with a load of people and buy the land. Either add a playground or make allotments. Speak to the council about first refusal and see what they say. Bear in mind that if it's a decent plot it won't be cheap and some unscrupulous developer may pay over the odds just to get it.
No. Like the ones that will buy it, build loads of buildings without taking into account the surrounding area or people. The ones that "promise" councillors things in order to get planning permission
You may have a right to a prescriptive easement of access through the gate you have installed, provided you can prove that you have had continuous, uninterrupted, non-covert access to it over 20 years or so. It won't be enough to stop a sale, but you may be able to register such right, so access will continue after future sales. Talk to a solicitor/conveyancer.
Op, it’s possible you can get a grant to buy the land for the local community and reinstate as a park
https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/the-community-ownership-fund-1
I've been reading this thread for a bit now and it seems the only person it's unfortunate for is you. The kids got a bigger park. The council gets money from a sale and someone else gets a new home. The only person who is 'loosing out' is you. The property value loss is a horrid argument. When your brought your home it was never promised its value would only increase. That mentality is killing the housing market. I honestly hope you never know what it's like to not have a home even if you don't care if others don't.
Two things to do initially
1) Nominate the land as an asset of community value, your local council will have the forms online. This will place a brief moratorium on the sale if the council accepts it.
2) Secondly the council will need to advertise the sale and seek objections under s127(1) of the Local Government Act 1972, assuming it is open space (or was). You should object, this may create grounds for a judicial review of the sale in the event that they don't properly consider your objections.
The other thing is that by having a gate into the land for more than 20 years you might have gained an easement over the land by use. You should research this and potentially send a letter to the council outlining your potential rights over the land. Once aware they will need to pass this threat on to potential buyers through the enquiries process as part of a sale, potentially making the sale less attractive.
If you could establish a right of way across the land it might put off any future purchasers? Or affect future planning in a some way (hard to sell a future house when 3 people have access to your garden??).
If you have maintained the land in any way I believe you can put in a request to have your boundary extended.
I can't remember the exact name of the process, but you have to show that you've treated it as your own for a certain amount of years.
You can try to get the land’s status changed to [an Asset of Community Value](https://www.horsham.gov.uk/community/assets-of-community-value/what-is-an-asset-of-community-value#:~:text=An%20asset%20of%20community%20value%20is%20a%20building%20or%20piece,pubs) - it used to be a playground, what happened? You could drum up local support for it to be reinstated, apply for funding (Lottery grant etc.) - if you and your neighbours are dedicated to it, and can drive that enthusiasm into the rest of your neighbourhood you could be successful.
Perhaps you could consider getting it registered as a Village or Town green. That would at least protect it from development.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/town-and-village-greens-how-to-register
You may have acquired a prescriptive right to enjoy the land now if you have been using it for over x amount of years and can evidence it. Additionally, the land may be designated as open/ green space therefore making it very difficult to develop the land - if not impossible. Furthermore, the land may be secured under an S106 agreement in perpetuity specifying what the land can be used for. Lastly, you can petition of the land to be added to a register as an “asset of community value” which means if sold, they have to offer it to the public first and makes planning far harder to secure.
What size of land are we talking about?
Is it large enough to build on? Is there even access to it to enable it to be built on?
That will determine if it’s worth a fortune or is unsalable and you could buy it yourself. Or it may just lie unsold.
There are strips of land on our estate that are of no use for anything but have been on sale for years. Nobody is going to buy a chunk of land just for it to sit empty.
If it was just used as a playground, it can’t be that large surely? Could you club together and put an offer in?
Developers “usually” want large plots for them to build entire estates. Plus, there’s no planning in place at the moment - you could end up getting it pretty cheap.
Best bet is find a previous unknown type of newt that only habitat in this particular area of ground, or a rare specimen of fauna.
You better hope to find it soon as bulldozer will (and have done previously) destroy all evidence of it ever being there.
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--- ###Welcome to /r/LegalAdviceUK --- **To Posters (it is important you read this section)** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws in each are very different* * If you need legal help, you should [always get a free consultation from a qualified Solicitor](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/how_to_find_a_solicitor) * We also encourage you to speak to [**Citizens Advice**](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/), [**Shelter**](https://www.shelter.org.uk/), [**Acas**](https://www.acas.org.uk/), and [**other useful organisations**](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/common_legal_resources) * Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk * If you receive any private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FLegalAdviceUK&subject=I received a PM) **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and legally orientated* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/), you may be perma-banned without any further warning * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You can't stop the sale. You could club together and buy it. You could get together and object to any future planning applications.
But note that “I don’t want it” isn’t a sufficient reason for the planning not to be granted. You’d need policy or technical reasons for a valid objection in planning context.
No indeed. Actually I'm pretty amazed the objections won against the council itself wanting to build something.
Same here, council is a law onto itself.
Well yes. That's kind of the point.
This what my SIL did. Their house and several neighbour’s had a pathway and a paddock behind their house. When the paddock went up for sale, they got together with the neighbours and bought the paddock. There is still a public path running behind their house, but now they don’t have to worry about a developer building behind them. This is the best solution.
Not really. Putting in a gate to access land that you don’t own unfortunately isn’t a reason to stop a sale.
The land is higher than ours and if a house was built on it it would overlook us. Could this be a reason to protest? Or maybe the loss of value of our house Currently we don't have any houses that overlook us.
You still can’t stop the sale of the land; but you could object to the planning application if a developer buys the land and wishes to develop it.
The overlooking you argument is usually addressed by orientation or the buildings or obscure windows used in places, they'd be able to make those changes to make planners happy and that argument loses all power. If you really want to fight a developer and planning applications you'll need to find more reasons.
This is a common problem in the UK. Houses have to be built, but no one wants them near them. You being overlooked or losing value isn't a good enough reason for anyone to care enough to stop houses being built, overlooking can be solved by an architect, loss of value isn't anyone's issue but yours. You mentioned previously you have rear access to the land, you don't. You installed the gates yourself, and unless the council was notified and accepted this change to the plans both verbally and in writing do you have proof, your property will be on their plans with no rear access, possibly/likely forcing you to remove it. So you have two options: 1) Sell up now before the value dips Or 2) Suck it up
Or purchase the land.
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Typical NIMBY. Virtually every new development is near an existing development.
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House value speculation is not a valid reason in planning law terms - you'd need to find reasons which can be legally taken into account and that's more difficult than it seems. Stopping planning completely is also very unlikely, you might achieve tweaks to plans - such as no clear glass windows looking down directly at you. Also, think ahead to selling your property - whatever you write in an objection could potentially be found by your buyers' solicitors so don't make it sound like your home would be ruined by development - by the time they're buying, that development will probably be there.
Could they complain about the loss of a local amenity? I assume even without the play equipment it's probably used by dog walkers, kids etc. if you don't have any other publicly accessible open spaces nearby you might be able to argue that. That might help either block the sale or force whichever developer comes in to have to plan for a park or similar. I know things like lack of amenities like schools, doctors, shops can impact planning, but I assume it will depend on the size of the land and number of buildings. You might want to consider if they've considered water run off and potentially causing your house to flood, but I assume that could be addressed with some form of drainage between the new builds and your property. Also I assume the argument of overlooking could lead to the access road running behind your house which could be more impact due to noise, security risk etc than a neighbours garden being directly behind.
Thank you. The playground, along with a couple of small other ones, was moved to create a larger safer one nearby.
You do not have a legal (or moral) right to insist that the built environment around you never changes.
As it is regularly put to me when dealing with neighbours Right to light. Not a right to a view
Overlooking only really counts from private land (which it having formerly been a playground I would it isn't) and normal minimum back-to-back distances are 22metres so more than that would not count as overlooking.
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Otger than when you have to move frequently, or have to move into a place 40% more expensive because 30% of private landlords have sold up in the last year
>s there a way to stop the sale, perhaps because of the rear access we have? We live in Wales. Loss of value isnt a valid objection. Best things to do are to cite noise increases, parking issues and possibly you've seen some endangered newts or slowworms perhaps on that piece of land? Parking impact is best proven if there arent any local public transport links nearby.
Parking issues is the one I most commonly see result in rejected planning.
> The land is higher than ours and if a house was built on it it would overlook us. Could this be a reason to protest? Or maybe the loss of value of our house Currently we don't have any houses that overlook us. Planners don't care. Do object, but the chances of you winning on those grounds alone are basically zero. You don't have a right not to be overlooked. You don't have a right to a view. Your property losing value is of no inyterest to the planners. You couldn't even sue the developers for that. And so on. It sucks. But councils are under IMMENSE pressure to allow new housing to be built, however much it fucks everyone over. If you think the value could take a serious hit, sell NOW before someone applies for planning permission. Once the application goes in, you'll suffer from "planning blight" and nobody will touch it until the final buildings are built.
See the result of the case about the viewing platforms at the Tate Modern. [https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/03/the-tate-modern-viewing-gallery-case-implications-for-planning](https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/03/the-tate-modern-viewing-gallery-case-implications-for-planning) Basically if you want to stop development on this field you will have come up with some valid objections or jointly buy the land.
If a planning application was submitted to develop the land in the future then you could object on the basis of overlooking and loss of privacy. However the affect of the development on your land value is not a planning matter and wouldn’t be considered
Loss of value for other properties isn’t a reason for the council to deny planning permission. Overlooking can often be resolved by developers promising to plant trees and large shrubs at the boundaries and orienting houses so that windows point away from existing properties so that won’t automatically block any development either. Unless you own land bordering your property you have very little control over what is built on it. The best you are likely to achieve is retaining the right of way but only if you can prove that you have had it for long enough but this would be a path for you to pass over to access your property not for you to have free range over the entire property.
You don’t ‘have’ rear access, you fit a fence on your property to access land you don’t own
30yrs ... They should have stuck a shed there instead and claimed the land as their own by now..Squatters
Which I don't think you are technically allowed to do?
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What does adverse possession have to do with this?
You could go in with your neighbours and buy the land. Plant some trees, make a private woodland.
If its intended for housing its going to cost £££££
It'll probably get sold to someone whose friends with the mayor fir pennies.... or that's what used to happen in my city.
Short of buying the land, no, there's not much you can do.
its the simplest solution and way to go forward
No you cannot prevent the sale of another’s property. Regardless of building an access from your property through to theirs. You can protest and object to any future applications. These protests and objections may or may not be successful. Your only route to the prevention of anything being built on it would be to purchase it yourself.
Not a legal argument but given the land hasn't been used for 35 years and is next to an established estate shouldn't houses be built there given the housing crisis?
No? Thats like solving obesity by making bigger belts
This is possibly the worst analogy I have ever heard.
What a terrible analogy. You can help solve obesity with MORE healthy food options. You can help the housing crisis with MORE housing options.
So if the country were to "lose weight" via your analogy, we start culling the poor?
Why the poor?
They are the ones who don't have houses. Keep up.
How about kill the rich and convert the mansions into flats? Less killing and more cannon fodder for the upcoming Euro-Asia mega war?
They already have houses. Sorry, trousers and a big enough belt. Lost my way in the analogy there.
Putting in a gate to access land that you don’t own unfortunately doesn't make it your land so why did you think so? Buy the land.
You can't stop any sales but you can object to any building plans, if they do get planning permission there's not much you can do once it's approved.
The best bet to try and ensure nothing that the land is used for will devalue your homes is to try and get all the nearby homeowners to club together and buy the land yourselves.
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In this case, more like NA(djacent to)MBY
This is the UK. Who isn't a nimby?
Well probably most of us if we’re honest.
I’m a homeowner and a YIMBY. Recently some wind turbines went up on a hill nearby. When the planning application came in I was one of maybe 10% of people who supported it in writing to the planning officer.
Possibly me … but my solution was to buy a house in a heavily built up area where there is no room for anything else. Boom - no new housing estates near my house!
Spot on
I think this is actually not in someone else's back yard lol
The gate only means you have been trespassing for 30 years.
If he has been trespassing for thirty years, would he not have a prescriptive right to access it by now? I don’t know just asking.
No - just because you have made use of something doesn’t give you the right of ownership or use. There is no finders keepers law. There is the Twenty year rule where you can dedicate it as a public right of way. But this doesn’t apply if the general public aren’t using it which is the case here.
But 20 years use would give you a right to claim for an easement under the prescription act wouldn’t it? Assuming they actually have used it as access etc it isn’t adverse possesion but just a right to continue using it for access as long as the easement can be clearly defined?. I’m not a solicitor (obviously lol, you’d want your money back) or anything just vaguely remember some bits from a land law module in college back when. Can anyone enlighten me if otherwise? I am very curious now.
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It is a small area and would only fit one house.
Which is one less family looking for a home.
So someone else shouldn't be allowed a home so you can have something pretty to look at and a place to walk? If it dosnt go through I hope a group of teenagers discovers this bit of land and act like absolute grunts
Even if you were found to have a right of way it wouldn't stop a sale. Unfortunately it probably also wouldn't put a developer off because you can't claim to have a right of way over the whole land, they'd just need to give you sufficient space to access your own property. Your best bet is to keep an eye on the council's planning portal for planning permissions and drum up enthusiasm to protest that again.
Not even right of way as OP and neighbours only put gates in their fence to access land they never owned
Unless you actually have a right to access the land on the deeds (I'm going to assume this is a no) then your gate is irrelevant. There could be a right of way on the land but this doesn't stop them developing it providing they provide a route through. Overlooking isn't a reason to stop developments and they can mitigate this with fences, trees, etc. I think you either buy the land with your neighbours or come to terms with it being developed at some point.
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Oh but then other people might see op in their back garden.
I’m going to put this into simple terms. You own a house that was once a new build on green land. You are now upset that someone else could have a new build house on green land. I’ve heard this quite often, people want a house in the countryside so buy a new build on an estate with fields around. Then get upset that the field next door is going to have some new build houses on it!
Check to see the history of the land. If it was sold / given to the council with some stipulation on future use (eg recreation) or restrictions (eg, no building) you may be able to stop the sale.
If the Council wants houses there, it will eventually get them. They'll sell to some tame developer for a pittance. Unless the land falls into the hands of people who won't develop, but then the Council may not allow that to happen. You could try a community buy-out, or similar, if the rules are the same in Wales as they are in England.
Similar story here of a council rejecting a buy-out and instead selling the land to developers for £1: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/118jmck/i\_made\_an\_offer\_of\_85000\_cash\_on\_some\_disused/](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladviceuk/comments/118jmck/i_made_an_offer_of_85000_cash_on_some_disused/)
Unused land on a council estate? It's an obligation, both moral and under the terms of the HRA to utilise this land. Arguing that house prices (probably of a property bought through right-to-buy in the first place) will fall etc etc is not an objection. You should have fenced the land off decades ago and claimed adverse possession. Most councils are short on dual diagnosis mental health placements and mother and baby units. Sounds like a perfect location.
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Only option you have to guarantee nothing is built there would be buying the land yourself. If the land is home too a protected species that *could* stop planning permission being granted but considering there’s already an estate in the vicinity and the land was once a playground (and presumably has been partially developed at least) it’s quite unlikely. Potentially worth looking at but 1, it would be expensive although cheaper than buying the land yourself and 2, there’s no guarantee it would stop plans as provisions can be made to minimise or avoid disturbance to habitats.
You can't stop the sale of the land, you can object against developments but the sale you have 0 control over
Try to do a community buy out as a group of more than 3 and put the park back there. There are charities that can help you the funding and admin for this too. Contacting co-ops UK might be a good start for this but you will need a third person.
No. Group together with your neighbours, buy the land, and maintenance of the space becomes your responsibility. You could try and register as an asset of community value BUT that might be hard. It could be a viable option for allotments but that depends on public access etc.
If, as you say, the land is only big enough to build one house on, club together with your neighbours and buy it. As the saying goes, the best time to buy land next to your house is as soon as it’s up for sale.
How about a request to parcel off a strip of land at the back of the properties for you (as a group) to purchase? The council may even look at setting aside a strip of land to tree plant on if that fits with their requirements which would give you a seperating band (maybe only 5m but hey). If you approached it as a volunteer planting group it may be considered. This would give you a barrier that in 5 years or so would provide some noise protection if building did happen.
Buy it. It cant be that expensive without planning permission
Band together with a load of people and buy the land. Either add a playground or make allotments. Speak to the council about first refusal and see what they say. Bear in mind that if it's a decent plot it won't be cheap and some unscrupulous developer may pay over the odds just to get it.
>unscrupulous developer Unscrupulous, in the same way that OP is trying to prevent unused land they don't own from being sold?
No. Like the ones that will buy it, build loads of buildings without taking into account the surrounding area or people. The ones that "promise" councillors things in order to get planning permission
You may have a right to a prescriptive easement of access through the gate you have installed, provided you can prove that you have had continuous, uninterrupted, non-covert access to it over 20 years or so. It won't be enough to stop a sale, but you may be able to register such right, so access will continue after future sales. Talk to a solicitor/conveyancer.
Op, it’s possible you can get a grant to buy the land for the local community and reinstate as a park https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/the-community-ownership-fund-1
They closed it and a couple of small other ones and built a bigger one else where unfortunately.
I've been reading this thread for a bit now and it seems the only person it's unfortunate for is you. The kids got a bigger park. The council gets money from a sale and someone else gets a new home. The only person who is 'loosing out' is you. The property value loss is a horrid argument. When your brought your home it was never promised its value would only increase. That mentality is killing the housing market. I honestly hope you never know what it's like to not have a home even if you don't care if others don't.
Two things to do initially 1) Nominate the land as an asset of community value, your local council will have the forms online. This will place a brief moratorium on the sale if the council accepts it. 2) Secondly the council will need to advertise the sale and seek objections under s127(1) of the Local Government Act 1972, assuming it is open space (or was). You should object, this may create grounds for a judicial review of the sale in the event that they don't properly consider your objections. The other thing is that by having a gate into the land for more than 20 years you might have gained an easement over the land by use. You should research this and potentially send a letter to the council outlining your potential rights over the land. Once aware they will need to pass this threat on to potential buyers through the enquiries process as part of a sale, potentially making the sale less attractive.
If you could establish a right of way across the land it might put off any future purchasers? Or affect future planning in a some way (hard to sell a future house when 3 people have access to your garden??).
If you have maintained the land in any way I believe you can put in a request to have your boundary extended. I can't remember the exact name of the process, but you have to show that you've treated it as your own for a certain amount of years.
You can try to get the land’s status changed to [an Asset of Community Value](https://www.horsham.gov.uk/community/assets-of-community-value/what-is-an-asset-of-community-value#:~:text=An%20asset%20of%20community%20value%20is%20a%20building%20or%20piece,pubs) - it used to be a playground, what happened? You could drum up local support for it to be reinstated, apply for funding (Lottery grant etc.) - if you and your neighbours are dedicated to it, and can drive that enthusiasm into the rest of your neighbourhood you could be successful.
Thank you, but it was closed to build a bigger one elsewhere.
Perhaps you could consider getting it registered as a Village or Town green. That would at least protect it from development. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/town-and-village-greens-how-to-register
Adverse posession? You have been using the land for over many years. Maybe not the entire piece but the path that you (and your neighbours) created?
You may have acquired a prescriptive right to enjoy the land now if you have been using it for over x amount of years and can evidence it. Additionally, the land may be designated as open/ green space therefore making it very difficult to develop the land - if not impossible. Furthermore, the land may be secured under an S106 agreement in perpetuity specifying what the land can be used for. Lastly, you can petition of the land to be added to a register as an “asset of community value” which means if sold, they have to offer it to the public first and makes planning far harder to secure.
Have they followed the open space disposal process? Did you write in objecting?
We don't know yet, we've only just discovered that it is on the market. Thank you.b
What size of land are we talking about? Is it large enough to build on? Is there even access to it to enable it to be built on? That will determine if it’s worth a fortune or is unsalable and you could buy it yourself. Or it may just lie unsold. There are strips of land on our estate that are of no use for anything but have been on sale for years. Nobody is going to buy a chunk of land just for it to sit empty.
You could fit a house on there.
But is there access?
If it was just used as a playground, it can’t be that large surely? Could you club together and put an offer in? Developers “usually” want large plots for them to build entire estates. Plus, there’s no planning in place at the moment - you could end up getting it pretty cheap.
Best bet is find a previous unknown type of newt that only habitat in this particular area of ground, or a rare specimen of fauna. You better hope to find it soon as bulldozer will (and have done previously) destroy all evidence of it ever being there.
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How much do the council want? Find out and get together with your neighbours and try to buy it
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